Sunday evening was the 97th annual Oscar Awards, also notably known as Hollywood’s biggest night of the year.
Lots of remarkable films were released in 2024 and it led to some great competition, well-deserved wins, and some painful losses.
Opening the ceremony
Popular late-night host Conan O’Brien hosted this year and he really hit the mark with his comedy.
In present and past award seasons we’ve seen more comedians hosting and it always seems tricky for them to find the balance between discussing the event and making tasteful jokes but O’Brien did a great job.
A majority of his jokes were presented in monologue form as he discussed the many films nominated and the jokes came across so naturally.
It didn’t feel like he was trying too hard to make the audience or viewers laugh and he connected with the actors in their seats as most of the jokes were nods or references to the films and he wasn’t awkwardly singling people out like we often see with these types of comedy and events.
The ceremony opened with Wicked stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande performing an Oz-themed medley. Grande began with singing “Somewhere Over The Rainbow”, Erivo sang “Home” from The Wiz, and the two dueted a segment of “Defying Gravity” from Wicked.
Their performance was already being highly talked about by people on social media before it had even been confirmed what they were doing leading to some high hopes. The pair certainly delivered.
Supporting Actor and Actress
The first award of the night was for Best Supporting Actor and it was presented to Kieran Culkin for his performance in A Real Pain.
Culken is very well-known for his eclectic and frazzled acceptance speeches and as this was his first Oscar nomination and win, this ceremony was no exception. He delivered his speech with his typical anxiety-ridden tone but it was coupled with care and appreciation as well as him telling a heart-warming story about him and his wife.
Culken has been appearing more and more in the media though he’s had a long-lasting career but nonetheless, it’s nice seeing him get this well-deserved recognition.
Best Supporting Actress resulted in the first award for the Emilia Pérez movie and it was presented to Zoë Saldaña.
Her speech focused a lot on her ethnicity and the importance of the film. She gave a touching speech despite the controversy it may have sparked.
“I am the first American of Dominican origin to accept an Academy Award. And I know I will not be the last. The fact that I am getting an award for a role where I got to sing and speak in Spanish, my grandmother, if she were here, she would be so delighted,” Saldaña said.
Awards For Behind The Scenes
The award for Best Costume Design had actors from each nominated film coming onstage to discuss the costumer for the film as concept sketches were shown on screen and it was very well done as it shined even more light on these hard-working nominees. The award went to the costuming for Wicked and was accepted by customer Paul Tazewell, who also won a Tony for costume design for the musical Hamilton in 2016. Tazewell is the first black man to ever win the award.
Best Makeup and Hairstyling went to The Substance, which is arguably the most deserving film for the award.
The Substance required lots of special effects style makeup and it’s certain each actor spent countless hours in those makeup chairs at the hands of Pierre-Olivier Persin, Stéphanie Guillon, and Marilyne Scarselli.
Best Production Design was Wicked’s second and last award that night but it was certainly deserved. The set for Wicked was fully built to establish the magical world of the film and it made for an immersive experience and certainly needed the credit.
Screenplays
Best Adapted Screenplay went to the film Conclave, a movie about uncovering the secrets of the Vatican and catholicism while trying to elect a new pope.
Best Original Screenplay went to the film Anora which swept the awards ceremony. The film is about a sex worker who marries the son of a Russian oligarch and almost gets her fairytale story before some unfortunate events take place. It’s been a highly talked about film, especially in relation to award season but it was also much smaller than most of the other nominated films, however, that led to a really satisfying win for the independent film.
Audio and Visual Awards
Best Original Score was presented and The Brutalist won its first award on the night. The 3 ½ hour film was nominated for 10 awards in the evening and made out pretty well.
Best Original Song was awarded to Emilia Pérez for the song “El Mal”
French songwriters Clément Ducol and Camille accepted the award and gave a short and sweet speech but it swiftly faded into the duo singing awkwardly into the mic which left many viewers with a sense of secondhand embarrassment.
Best Sound as well as Best Visual Effects went to Dune: Part Two. The film was nominated for five Oscar Awards, Best Picture being among the few, and it really came out of the shadows for the season due to its release earlier in the year and it getting thrown under most people’s radar.
Dune: Part Two’s nominations did provide a handful of controversy for the Academy as four voters anonymously admitted to not watching the film and leaving it off of their ballot for Best Picture.
Best Cinematography was another win for The Brutalist and this time was accepted by Lol Crawley; this was both his first Oscar nomination and his first win.
Best Film Editing was a win for the film Anora and Sean Baker who accepted the award as well as the screenplay award earlier in the night.
Short and International Film
Best Live Action Short Film was awarded to I’m Not A Robot, a Dutch drama short film with heavy sci-fi and drama elements.
I’m Still Here won the award for Best International Feature Film. I’m Still Here is the first Brazilian film to win an Oscar award. The film focuses on the true story of a family being ripped apart and a woman trying to uncover the truth about her missing husband.
Walter Salles accepted the award and gave a respectful speech acknowledging the woman the film is about as well as her family. His speech was full of gratitude as well as pride for both the film and his country.
Animation Awards
Best Animated Short Film went to In The Shadow of the Cypress. The award was accepted by an Iranian pair who gave a very loving speech. Hossein Molayemi and Shirin Sohani explained that they had gotten off a flight roughly 3 hours prior to the awards and were unsure if they would even have their visa the day prior. It was a speech full of gratitude and it was clear, the right people were getting awarded.
Best Animated Feature Film was awarded to the film Flow, a beautifully done animated film about a cat trying to find its way. It was another independent film and beat out both Dreamworks and Disney. Flow had a remarkably small budget, especially in comparison to the large films it was against. Not only was it independent and small-budget, it was also the first Latvian film to win an Oscar.
Gints Zilbalodis went up to accept the award and was later seen at the Hollywood In-N-Out proudly getting a cheeseburger with his statuette as many do during this award season.
Documentaries
The award for Best Documentary Feature Film went to No Other Land. The award was accepted by directors Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szo and they used their time on stage to address the continuing conflict in Palestinian and Israeli which was what their documentary was about.
Best Documentary Short Film was awarded to The Only Girl in The Orchestra which is about double bassist Orin O’Brien as she is the first woman to become a full-time member of the New York Philharmonic.
The Battle for The Best Actor and Actress
Best Actor is one of the most coveted Oscar awards and this year the race was tight. Each nominee had put in countless hours of work and starred in noteworthy films. It was a situation that made it hard for anyone to pick just one person deserving, but as these awards went, a choice had to be made. The choice however was an interesting one.
Star of The Brutalist, Adrien Brody, accepted the award. He however did not take the stage with grace and class. Instead, Brody started a spiral of egotistical behavior, beginning with tossing his gum at his girlfriend who he brought to the ceremony.
Brody then proceeded to give the longest Oscar speech ever of 6+ minutes.
Winners are allowed 45 seconds to deliver their speech, after this time the orchestra begins to play a tune to signal the need to wrap up. The winners almost always go over time but remain very respectful and do hurry their speech.
Winning an Academy Award is a big deal and people want to make sure they give thanks where it belongs and honor their achievements.
Brody however seemed to think this didn’t apply to him as he said “Turn the music off! I’ve done this before. Thank you. It’s not my first rodeo, but I will be brief.” rudely dismissing the orchestra. This isn’t the first time Brody has done something like this as he similarly responded when he first won the award in 2002.
He also in fact was not brief after this rude comment as he continued to talk, leading to the subsequent winners of the night having less time to give their thanks.
“I was really hoping for Timothee Chalamet to win so it was upsetting to see Brody get the award, especially after the speech he gave,” Riley Clement said.
Similarly, the race for Best Actress was tight, specifically the competition between Demi Moore and Mikey Madison. All in all the running was impressive but realistically it was all between Moore and Madison.
Moore starred in The Substance, a film all about an actress getting older and fighting for her fame against a backdrop of ageism. This is a scenario that the 62-year-old actress is experiencing in her own right.
It was a thing universally understood how impactful it would be for Moore to win the award, especially for this particular film.
Madison on the other hand had the general scenario of an up-and-coming star being nominated for her first Oscar.
Both wins would be monumental.
The award ended up going to the latter Mikey Madison.
It’s one of those bittersweet moments as Madison highly deserved the win, but just how perfect and satisfying would it have been for Moore to take home the statuette?
A Final Moment for Anora
Best Director was presented once again to Baker for his work on Anora. Throughout the evening Baker won four awards total and became the person to win the most Academy awards for a single film.
Then, the last award of the night was then handed out for Best Motion Picture.
Cillian Murphy, who starred in last year’s winner Oppenheimer, presented the award to none other than Baker for Anora.
It’s no doubt that Anora was an impactful film. It had captivating and important topics and was an excellent film to watch and Baker’s and Madison’s speeches made it clear they were deserving of their wins.
It may not have been the best award for some and it had its issues as it always does but of course, the Oscars come and go and most of these moments will be forgotten by the time the 98th ceremony rolls around.
